For the record, the Staff Council (the consultative body representing medical specialists) advises the hospital board on this matter; it is not authorised to vote on the plans. In a letter to the board this week, the Council sets out its concerns.
The most significant of these relate to the proposed governance model, says chairman Marc Buise. The MUMC+ chairman will soon not only be in charge of both the hospital and the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, but will also take a seat on the overarching five-member board that will lead the MUMC+ and the university. The doctors fear that such an additional layer of governance could slow down decision-making. “The other bodies also had serious reservations about this. It is therefore clear that this model needs to be reviewed once again.”
Evaluate the dual role
Criticism was also voiced in other representative bodies regarding the dual role assigned to the hospital director under this new ‘Maastricht model’. The specialists understand this, but according to Buise, they do not consider it a matter of urgency. They agree with the current hospital chair, Helen Mertens, who previously stated that this approach helps maintain the connection with the workfloor. “We do recommend evaluating this dual role once more experience has been gained.”
It seems there is still room for adjustment regarding the role of employee representation, they feel. Under the plans, the councils within the university and hospital would send representatives to a ‘consultative forum’ with the new executive board. However, the Staff Council argues that the bodies have different legal powers in both organisations, which complicates cooperation. Furthermore, the representatives would constantly have to return to their own constituencies for consultation. Buise and his colleagues believe that this will not work.
"Quite positive"
Yet none of this is reason enough for them to scrap the entire model and advise the board to start from scratch, as the University Council advocates. On the contrary, says Buise, “we’re generally quite positive; as far as we’re concerned, we’re going ahead. We believe you have to start somewhere and then, after one term of office [four years], see if it works”. After all, a merger between an entire university and a hospital has never been attempted in the Netherlands. “So we have to develop the model ourselves.”
Buise hopes that the board members will not wait too long to respond to all the criticism. Now that all the relevant bodies have had their say, “we can hopefully sit down together again soon after Easter”.